Ali Baba Time Out Deli is closing after 40 years

Daryl Wagner talks about his memories of Ali Baba Time Out Deli, which is closing this month.

Josh Flory/News Sentinel
The proprietor of Ali Baba Time Out Deli makes falafel on Friday. The deli is closing this month, after 40 years in business.

Daryl and Jenny Wagner came to West Knoxville on Friday to visit an old friend.

For years, the couple has enjoyed meals at the Ali Baba Time Out Deli — she favors the gyro, he likes the Emtaboel No. 2 — and they recently learned that the eatery will close later this month.

Daryl Wagner, 61, recalled attending Tennessee Wesleyan College as a young man and making late-night stops at Ali Baba on the way back to Athens with his friends.

"Those are the memories that you won't forget," he said.

Forty years worth of memories will soon be packed up at the eatery on Kingston Pike near Bearden High School, in preparation for the closure and a sale of the restaurant equipment.

In the backroom on Friday, the deli's 69-year-old proprietor — who declined to give a name other than Ali Baba — said the restaurant has been in its current location for four decades, but that he has become too busy.

However, he indicated some of his secrets — he specifically mentioned the King Solomon Chicken — will go to his son-in-law's restaurant, Alladin's Time Out Deli on Central Street.

At any rate, the closure will leave a gap in the Bearden dining scene. Knoxville resident Laurie Griffin said the eatery has a hole-in-the-wall feel, adding that the employees are "always so fun when you come in."

Griffin always gets a Vol Burger and fries. "It's just a special place," she said.